BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 17. The ability to adapt to different circumstances and act flexibly will be the most important skill in the future labor market, SOCAR President Rovshan Najaf said at the opening ceremony of the Baku ID 2026 innovation festival held at the SABAH. City Innovation Campus, Trend's correspondent reports from the event.
He said that the concepts of the short, medium, and long term are changing, making lifelong learning particularly important. "In the world of the future, the concept of lifelong learning will be of crucial importance," Najaf said.
According to him, the importance of such areas as automation, robotics, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity is growing every day. "We still cannot fully grasp the scale of this issue. The most important skill of the future is adaptability. Thinking differently in different circumstances and acting flexibly are becoming essential," the SOCAR president stressed.
Najaf noted that alongside the growing use of artificial intelligence, it is also necessary to be prepared for scenarios in which these technologies may become unavailable. "What if one day these technologies become unavailable? Will we be able to continue our work without them?" he stressed.
According to him, traditional professions and fundamental skills should therefore retain their relevance, while managers in both the public and private sectors should have A, B and C plans covering different possible scenarios. "Vocational schools should teach traditional skills and the ability to teach others alongside artificial intelligence and robotics. Throughout history, there have been many highly talented people who, however, were unable to pass their knowledge on to the next generations," Najaf said.
The SOCAR president said he hoped that the SABAH. City Innovation Campus would eventually become not only a space for infrastructure and technological innovation, but also a creative environment for people who think freely and put forward different ideas. "I hope that this space will first and foremost be a ‘home’ for free-thinking minds that go beyond established boundaries and come up with bold and different ideas. There are many places with coffee and good facilities, but there are few spaces where people feel as comfortable and creative as they do at home," he said.
Najaf said that through its vocational education programs, SOCAR seeks to meet not only its own needs but also those of other companies.
He added that it is difficult to accurately predict the changes that will occur in the future, and even leading experts in artificial intelligence cannot determine precisely what the next five to 15 years will look like. "Throughout human history, we have forgotten many fundamental skills. Most of us no longer know how to navigate by the stars, make fire naturally, or treat illnesses with plants. If we also delegate our critical thinking ability to artificial intelligence and lose it, this could become an irreversible process," Najaf stressed.
The SOCAR president noted that the key goal should be to develop human thinking and adaptability alongside technological progress.
The Baku ID 2026 innovation festival is being held in Baku on September 17–18, organized by SABAH.HUB Innovation Center, with the support of government agencies and private-sector partners.
Baku ID brings together investors, startups and leading representatives of the innovation ecosystem. The festival is being held for the first time this year at the SABAH. city innovation campus, one of Azerbaijan’s emerging centers for future technological development. Bringing together industry, science, capital and the public sector in a single environment, SABAH.city is being developed as a modern ecosystem aimed at strengthening the country’s innovation potential.
The two-day festival program includes keynote speeches, panel discussions, startup presentations and networking sessions. Discussions will cover key trends shaping the future of technology and business, including artificial intelligence, venture capital, angel investment, and financial, healthcare, education, green, and property technologies.
As part of the festival, local and international startups will present their solutions to investors representing Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Türkiye, Georgia, the Middle East and North Africa, and other international markets.
